This Friday May 19th we have a free rat trap and cage pick up afternoon at Patumahoe School from 2.25 – 4.30pm.

If you are able to help hand out traps and talk to people that would be great. You are welcome to come along and pick up 1 or more rat traps yourself. There is also an awesome limited special offer where you can register to purchase a Good Nature A24 rat trap for just $80 including a counter for free. (Normal retail direct from Good Nature $199).

This is immediately after school finishes and has been publicised through the school newsletter and County News. Some of us will be there earlier at 1.00pm helping assemble some of the rat trap cages. If you are able to join us at 1.00 – even better. No carpentry skills needed.

We carried out some bird surveys around the Village with help from Patumahoe School room 9 students. What was great to see is that tui and kereru numbers were way up on similar surveys we carried out 5 – 7 years ago. In the buffer zone around Patumahoe we saw several bait stations and one land owner has in place 24 Good Nature rat traps. It is awesome to see the difference and it will exciting to see what can be achieved with even more predator control.

Whakaupoko Landcare/ Te Whangai trust Community partnership

On the second Wednesday of every month, from 10.00am – 12.30pm Whakaupoko Landcare and Community Members are welcome to come and work alongside Te Whangai staff & students at their Tui Glen Nursery 188 Jutland Road, Pukekohe (At end of Princes Street West) Pukekohe-(next door to the new subdivision.)

We will be doing native plant nursery work, such as seed sowing/taking cuttings /pricking out seedlings/ potting/weeding and other general nursery activities.

Members are then welcome to remain for lunch. (Bring your own lunch or something to share.)

This is an initiative aimed at providing a regular meeting place for Whakaupoko members, interacting, mentoring and generally assisting Te Whangai with their nursery work plus meeting a whole new group of people.

There will be a short safety brief and detailed instructions for all volunteers.

Please wear closed in footwear and bring wet weather gear in case the weather lets us down. Bring some gardening gloves as well if you can.

Parking will be on the driveway around the lean- to shed, just before the narrow entrance to the nursery section.

Any queries or further information to Fiona Macdonald 021-596946 or 235-8301 or

Michael Ngatai, Auckland Council Biodiversity will tell us more about our cool and secretive Long Tailed Bat. What do they eat? Where do they roost? How many in a family? What is tupor?

10 Bat locators were set up for several week and the results are in. Are they in the Bald Hill area. Have they made it to Patumahoe or the Awhitu Peninsula? Have you seen them in your backyard? How can we look after them? Come along and find out more.

Garrick McCarthy from Auckland Council Biosecurity will background the ever increasing range of options for pest control and what is working well for people. Whakaupoko and Awhitu Peninsula Landcare experiences will add to this. This is very topical as the Pest Free Initiative starts to gain momentum.

Whakaupoko Landcare extends an invitation to everyone and anyone to come and join us for a couple of hours helping out with the third year of the St Brides riparian planting project.

For those who have not yet visited the historic church grounds, or want to know more about how riparian planting protects the waterways – it is a great opportunity to inform, explore and give a hand…

This project is part of the long term vision to protect the Mauku stream by completing riparian plantings and has been funded by Auckland Council’s generous donation of funds to purchase the plants.

Grab your gumboots, long sleeves and trousers and bring a spade to join us for a couple of hours to help continue this worthwhile project.

We are also looking for landowners who border Mauku Stream or its tributaries to join the project. Whakaupoko will provide advice, support and locally grown plants to enhance your section of the stream.

]]>http://patumahoe.org.nz/environment-nature/2016/06/20/planting-and-weeding-days/feed/1Mauku Stream project – Landowners wantedhttp://patumahoe.org.nz/environment-nature/2016/04/18/mauku-stream-project-landowners-wanted/
http://patumahoe.org.nz/environment-nature/2016/04/18/mauku-stream-project-landowners-wanted/#respondMon, 18 Apr 2016 00:05:39 +0000http://patumahoe.org.nz/environment-nature/?p=937Whakaupoko has been steadily working on a project aiming to improve water quality in our local Mauku stream.

One of the first landowners to agree to participate has been the local historical St Bride’s Church, and many hours have been spent planting and maintaining a riparian strip on that property alongside the stream.

The project is funded by Auckland Council – thanks to support from our Franklin Local Board, and volunteer provide the manpower, any participating landowner needs to provide access and good communication.

With that in mind, perhaps you are someone who would like to consider the following invitation from Whakaupoko Landcare:

“Kia ora katoa

The Local Board has just allocated another generous donation of funds to Whakaupoko for purchasing plants to plant along the Mauku Stream ( and its tributaries ) for 2016

Many thanks to the local board for including Whakaupoko in this round of funding it is great to be able to continue with this project.

If you or anyone you know owns land along the Mauku stream and would be interested in protecting and planting the riparian margins would you please let me know asap. We do already have some landowners who have expressed interest in joining us this year. More would be welcome.

Whakaupoko Landcare extends an invitation to everyone and anyone to come and join in for a couple of hours helping out with the second year of the St Brides riparian planting project.

For those who have not yet visited the historic church grounds, or want to know more about how riparian planting protects the waterways – it is a great opportunity to inform, explore and give a hand…

“After last year’s inaugural planting day, Whakaupoko Landcare will be hosting another working bee to establish the second stage of plantings and carry out some weed control around the existing plantings

This project is part of the long term vision to protect the Mauku stream by completing riparian plantings and has been funded by Auckland Council’s generous donation of funds to purchase the plants.

Grab your gumboots, long sleeves and trousers and bring a spade to join us for a couple of hours to help continue this worthwhile project.

We are also looking for landowners who border Mauku Stream or its tributaries to join the project. Whakaupoko will provide advice, support and locally grown plants to enhance your section of the stream.

For the Volcano Walk the forecast is looking great with just a little rain due to hold off until about 1.30. Light winds and cloud at the start = perfect.By the time it gets a bit windier we will be in the shelter of our trees.

Come and see some stunning scenery, learn more about our environment and get in some training before the Mauku School fun run the following weekend.

Local geologist Wendy Goad will be joining us to explain the past volcanic and land formation history of the area. It will include the Whakaupoko / Barriball / Bald Hill Tuft Ring which FDC had listed as one of only three ‘Outstanding Natural Features’. The other two being the Pukekohe East tuft ring and Waitangi Falls. The journey will also take in ‘The Fort’ to the south East of Bald Hill. This is an amazing lookout point seen by few, that overlooks the Akaaka and Port Waikato and which is immediately above a fault line. How did it all come to be? Come along and find out.

The early start time is to avoid the heat of the day with much of the first part of the walk being in the open. The end of the walk is through trees and there will be an Easter egg treasure hunt through the last section. The walk offers plenty of downhill. However being a round trip it also includes lots of uphill so a reasonable level of fitness is required. There will be a slightly shorter there and back flatter option which takes in most of the key viewing sights for those looking for 3 – 4km. The journey will take us across several privately owned properties and Whakaupoko Landcare would like to thank the owners for allowing the walk to take place.

There will be a bbq available at the end along with tea, coffee & water. People are welcome to bring food for a shared lunch.

Come along for a great day out and learn more about the place we live. If you are coming so as we can get an estimate on numbers can you please rsvp by calling Deborah on 2363051. Also if the weather forecast is really bad we will delay the tour to Sunday. Any postponement will be made on Friday before 5.00pm and posted on www.patumahoe.org.nz. A map of the walk can also be viewed.Locals looking out over the Tuft Ring and Titi volcano in the middle of it all. How did that come to be?